This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising.
By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies described in our Cookies Policy.
You may change your settings at any time but this may impact on the functionality of the site.
To learn more see our Cookies Policy.

“I shocked myself recently by looking at the homelessness ratio of all the other countries in the EU, and was surprised to discover that Ireland’s ratio of homeless people per head of population is one of the lowest in Europe,” he said.

“We forget that at our peril because it causes us to move away from things we succeed at doing so well, such as creating a country that has managed to survive one of the most extraordinary economic declines that has been experienced by any Western (nation).”

However Skehan said that Ireland is at the end of a “classic five-year period which occurs at the end of a housing crash”.

“The first two years are stopping to work out has the actual building finished collapsing around us, and then there’s a classic three-year period after that where people assemble sites and finance and get permissions and start things going.”

Conor Skehan

Ireland is four and a half years through this five-year cycle, according to Skehan. He said that this is a critical point.

“Year four and a half is always characterised by the sense that there will never be any more houses,” he said.

“This is the period when governments (and) policy makers panic. This is the period when plans are put in place that will produce the next downward cycle.

“The thing that causes over supply begins right now. The financial incentives, loosening of credit terms, expansion of planning capacity, happens right now at year four and a half.”

He added: “What we’re trying to say to the government and any minister we can lay our hands on is enough of the initiatives, just let us get on with the recovery in an orderly way.

“All of the seeds of that are in place and we are going to see dramatically more houses finished in the next 12 months.”

TheJournal.ie is a full participating member of the Press Council of Ireland and supports
the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme in addition to defending the freedom of the
press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may
have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the
Press Ombudsman Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or go to
www.pressombudsman.ie
or www.presscouncil.ie

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.